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10 Questions to Ask for Advertising Success

It’s exciting to launch a new advertising campaign. Whether it’s a TV commercial, radio ad, or simply some banner ads, seeing an advertisement for your company’s product or service is a great moment. But before you even decide on the type of campaign you are going to run, the tactics you are going to use, what your creative will look like, and even the words that will accompany it, you need to develop a creative brief or messaging document.

Creative briefs have been used in the advertising industry from the early days to ensure that the agency and the client are completely aligned on what they are trying to accomplish. Without a brief, the agency could conceivably go spend two weeks developing amazing ideas, creative executions, and media campaigns, that don’t ultimately end up aligning with their clients goals.

But whether you use an agency or not, isn’t it just as important for all the internal stakeholders in an organization to be aligned on what the goals and outcomes should be for their company’s marketing initiatives? Starting with a creative brief before every project, whether it is with an agency or not, is the key to everyone being on the same page and working toward the same goal.

A good creative brief doesn’t have to be long or complex, but needs to answer some key questions, and help boil down your strategy and goals into simple terms. The ten most important questions you need to answer are:

What is your single key message in one sentence?

What is the key objective or purpose of this campaign? Why are you advertising?

What problems are you solving?

What does the audience think or feel about you, your product, your service, etc.?

How should this change after seeing your advertising?

What are the reasons to buy your product/service?

Who are you talking to (gender, age, interests, income, education, etc.)?

What is your tone?

What are your product/services key benefits?

What is the call to action?

By taking the time upfront to answer these questions, and really think about how you want to market your product or service, you can ensure that your campaign is thought through. You also make sure that everyone involved in creating the campaign is working from the same set of core concepts and ideas. Whether it is the copywriter, the designer, or your social media manager, the brief will let everyone know the key components of the campaign and what they need to do to successfully implement their very important piece.

How Will Leads Convert?

Beyond those 10 questions, marketers should also consider how leads will want to convert on your ad. Will they want to fill out a web form to obtain content, request a call, book an appointment, or make a purchase? Or will they want to make a phone call to speak to a human being? The answer to these questions often depends on your industry and what you are selling — businesses with products and services that are complex, expensive, infrequently bought, or urgent purchases often generate more inbound calls than online leads.

Determining whether people will convert online or over the phone will not only impact your call to action for your ad and landing pages, but the technologies you will need to track conversion rates. Online conversions can be tracked using tools like Google Analytics. But if you think leads are likely to convert by making a phone call, then you would want to get attribution and intelligence on those phone leads using a call tracking solution.

Blair Symes is the Director of Content Marketing at DialogTech, the leading provider of marketing analytics for phone calls. Over the past 20 years, he has published hundreds of articles and eBooks on a wide range of marketing topics, including phone call analytics, conversion optimization, and omni-channel attribution. He can be reached at bsymes@dialogtech.com.